Infected
The next day they descended the mountain, heading for Karlo Fortress.
Knight Viktor pointed at Ion following behind Igor and asked quietly, “Igor, how strong is that man?”
“He handled a Frost Troll by himself with ease.”
“A Frost Troll?”
Viktor glanced back in surprise at Ion walking alongside Priest Silvio, then nodded. “Indeed. With that kind of strength he’ll be a significant asset.”
“Yes. That’s why I was so glad when we met him in the village.”
“I can see why.”
Viktor lowered his voice again. “He isn’t looking for our lord, is he?”
“We haven’t known each other long enough for that kind of conversation. But he doesn’t seem to be a knight searching for our lord.”
“Is that so? Then let’s keep an eye on him.”
Viktor glanced at Ion once more, gave the Frost Goat’s reins a light tug, and moved on ahead.
Though there was some distance between them, Ion could hear every word of Viktor and Igor’s conversation. Normally the sound of the goats’ hooves crunching through snow would have drowned out their voices, but his sharpened senses separated the sounds cleanly. Nothing they said about him was particularly noteworthy.
Silvio, riding beside him, smiled. “Brother Ion, how have you spent the last few months?”
“I’ve been well. Quite a few strange things happened, too.”
“Haha, I’m glad to hear it. Even in this barren land without monsters, it seems you’ve encountered all sorts of events.”
After they had parted ways, he had witnessed Bolda Fortress fall under monster assault, met Kobolds in the mines alongside Dwarf Dvalin, and fought a giant spider. Three months could feel both short and long depending on how one counted them.
Ion nodded, recalling everything that had happened. “Yes. More than I expected.”
He turned the question back on Silvio. “Priest Silvio, isn’t it dangerous traveling with fighters like us?”
“If it is the will of the Three Gods, I must follow. Until then, I intend to help the powerless. I possess no special strength, but I believe my role is to hold their hands and walk beside them.”
“Not everything requires fighting.”
Ion nodded. Before his regression he had paid little attention to priests, but ever since receiving the blessing he found his gaze drawn to them for reasons he couldn’t quite name.
“Haha, many people find priests like me bothersome and dislike us.”
“I believe there are many things knights like myself cannot do, so I have no problem with it.”
“Thank you for those kind words. Have you ever visited a temple?”
“I don’t believe I have.”
Witch Lina had also suggested he visit a temple, but he had yet to do so. He planned to go when he found the time.
“Even the northern territories have small temples here and there. Visiting one should ease your heart.”
“Yes. I’ll do that.”
“Thank you.”
Silvio smiled, satisfied, and continued the conversation. Ion responded in kind, happy to pass the time along the road.
Ten days later, Ion, Igor, Silvio, and Lotte hid on a hill overlooking Karlo Fortress in the distance. They had separated from the main party and waited for darkness to fall.
The plan was simple: at dawn Alexei and his group would launch an attack, drawing the patrollers’ attention and luring them away while Ion’s team slipped into the prison to free the prisoners. There would be guards, but everyone agreed Ion could handle them. The strategy had been built on the knowledge that Ion could defeat a troll alone; they had no idea how much stronger he had grown since then. Ion saw no reason to tell them. He could reveal it later if the situation demanded it.
“There are even more monsters north of the fortress now,” Igor told Ion quietly, careful not to disturb Silvio’s prayers.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. They say infected monsters have been sighted as well.”
“Infected? Infected by what?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps some kind of parasite from beyond the Ice Wall. The infected go berserk, grow stronger, and cause heavy damage before dying on their own after a few days.”
Dying within days was one thing, but the fact that the monsters grew stronger in the process was a serious problem—especially when patrollers used freemen as bait to lure them. It made everything far more dangerous.
“Have the infected come this far south?”
“As far as I know they only appear near the Ice Wall itself. Like I said, they die within days.”
“Hmm. I’ll have to be careful if we head near the Ice Wall.”
Ion nodded. Silvio continued praying in silence, Igor watched the fortress with a grave expression, and Ion stroked Lotte’s fur while they waited. The sky slowly darkened until dawn arrived.
Silvio opened his eyes. Igor drew his sword without a sound. Ion fed Lotte a strip of dried meat as a snack and waited a little longer.
Kwaaaa!
Flames erupted simultaneously from multiple points along the fortress palisade.
“Enemy!”
“It’s an attack!”
Ion rose to his feet. “Let’s move.”
Clang! Clang!
“They’re running that way! After them!”
“Block this side too!”
Alexei’s group focused on dodging and drawing the enemy rather than engaging directly.
“Put out the fires on the palisade!”
“Water! Bring water!”
“Rub snow on it first!”
Because they had poured oil before setting the flames, the fires refused to die easily. As a result, roughly half the defenders chased Alexei’s party while the other half fought the blazes.
Ion took the lead, consulting his map to slip past the patrollers and enter the fortress interior. It was still dawn; the bright flames along the wall made the inside comparatively dark. His black sword, black armor, and gambeson helped him blend into the chaos as the patrollers ran about in panic.
Even with the map’s guidance he could not avoid every encounter. Each time he met a patroller, Ion clamped a hand over their mouth and drove his blade home, silently clearing a path toward the prison.
‘Found it!’
Peering around the corner of another building, he saw the prison had been built like an animal pen—completely exposed to falling snow and the biting northern wind. Four sword-bearing guards stood before a bonfire that lit the area.
Silvio was not combat-capable, so they discounted him. If Ion, Igor, and Lotte charged together they could finish the guards quickly. Ion assigned each target with a gesture, then counted.
One. Two. Three!
They burst forward at the same time.
“...!”
“E-enemy…!”
Before the guards could even open their mouths, Ion’s sword flashed. Two heads rolled. Steel rang as one guard blocked Igor’s strike, only to stagger backward from the force. Igor thrust without hesitation.
“Uaaagh! Let go! Let go of me!”
Lotte had sunk its teeth into the guard’s sword arm and shook its head violently, trying to tear it off. The screaming guard beat and shoved at Lotte, but the wolf refused to budge. Ion, having already finished his first two targets, snapped the neck of the guard trying to pull Lotte away. Igor drove his blade into the last guard’s chest.
“Khuk!”
With all the guards down, they opened the prison door. The cells held not only freemen from the burned village but refugees and freemen from other settlements as well. Silvio and Igor, who had stayed out of the fighting, began guiding the prisoners.
“This way! Come this way!”
“Anyone injured or weak, help support them! We must leave quickly!”
Ion was about to fetch those still inside when a prisoner heading out stopped him.
“Sir Knight! Those men are patrollers!”
“Patrollers?”
“The others threw them in last night. They’ve been lying down complaining of illness ever since.”
“Is that so?”
Four men lay trembling inside the cell. Were they simply abandoning the sick like this?
Ion called out from the doorway. “You there. If you’re conscious, stand up.”
The patrollers kept shaking without answering. It felt unwise to open the door carelessly.
“If you won’t stand, we’ll leave you behind.”
The trembling stopped. Slowly the four rose, still facing away, shoulders heaving.
…
The targets are no longer human.
At that instant the four spun around and slammed their fists into the wooden door and bars.
“Kraaaah!”
Their eyes burned crimson. Veins wriggled hideously just beneath the exposed skin.
Kwaang!
Bare fists struck thick wooden bars. Cracks spider-webbed across the wood, then it splintered with a loud crack.
“Evacuate the people, now!” Ion shouted down the passageway to Igor.
“Grrrr!”
The infected patrollers stepped into the corridor. They looked less like men and more like beasts stalking prey. Igor had told him about infected monsters, but Ion had not realized humans could become infected too. The berserk state granted monstrous strength until the victim finally died.
The narrow prison passageway made swinging a sword difficult, but the civilians were still fleeing. They had to hold the line here.
“Kraaak!”
One infected lunged, swinging a fist. Ion caught it on the flat of his blade. The impact rang like metal on metal. Their skin had hardened.
The creature kept hammering at him. Ion continued to block with the flat of his sword—clang, clang, clang. The more the infected struck without effect, the angrier it became, pressing forward with greater force. Meanwhile the others behind it tore bars from the side cells to widen the space.
Ion calmly deflected every blow while checking his map, waiting for the last freemen and his companions to clear the prison. Once these four were excluded, only Lotte’s green dot remained.
—Bark bark bark!
Lotte signaled that everyone had exited.
Ion finally stepped back, adjusting his grip on the sword.
“Kuerrr!”
He met the incoming fist with a clean slash. Pain sheared through flesh and bone, severing the arm at the forearm.
“...?”
The infected stared at the stump. Instead of bright blood, sticky black fluid dripped. Its red eyes widened.
“Kuwoooer!”
It swung its remaining arm in fury. A flash—shoulder and arm fell together. The rest of its body came apart in pieces, collapsing to the floor. The hardened skin provided some resistance, but it could not stop Pain. The strange clinging sensation when cutting reminded him of the Frost Troll.
When the first infected fell, the others who had been ripping bars turned toward Ion and swung.
“Kuwoooer!”
He had observed the first one to understand its nature. There was no need to study the rest.
Ion swept his sword in a wide diagonal. The wooden bars on both sides and the infected’s waist parted together. Its torso hit the floor with a heavy thud.
Even with its waist severed, the creature crawled forward, arms scrabbling.
Ion drove his blade down, severing the head. The body convulsed once, then lay still. He already knew they were no longer human, yet the sight of a bisected torso still crawling was grotesque.
The last two roared and charged. Ion cut through their arms and heads in single strokes. No blood sprayed, yet the aftermath still felt unclean.
He removed his gauntlet and looked at the black thread ring on his right index finger. It flickered from dark gray to bright silver and back to black.
‘I don’t know what kind of poison it is, but it’s definitely poison!’
No blood had touched him, yet the ring had still reacted and neutralized it.
‘Then what about the other patrollers who brought these things here?’
“Kraaaagh!”
A patroller in the same uniform was struck by an infected and collapsed, spraying blood. Seeing it, Alexei and Viktor shouted.
“Stop trying to block—dodge! You cannot match their strength!”
“Form groups of two or three! One dodges, the others strike from the side!”
Patrollers already lay bleeding across the ground. Alexei and Viktor stood at the center of their combined force, now surrounding five infected.
They had lit the palisade and drawn the patrollers out, only for screams to erupt from within the enemy ranks. Infected had emerged from among the patrollers and begun attacking their own.
Alexei’s group and the patrollers had immediately ceased fighting each other to face the new threat.
“Kuwoooer!”
An infected charged, swinging. Patrollers dodged and counterattacked, but their blades only rang uselessly against hardened skin.
“It won’t cut!”
“You have to take the head!”
Fewer infected had fallen than patrollers, but each one required nearly ten casualties to bring down. Many more patrollers had already fled at the sight of the burning fortress and the monsters. Fewer than twenty men now remained to face the last five infected.
“Your Highness! What are your orders? Aside from you and Sir Viktor, our fighting strength is critically low!”
Alexei looked at his subordinates. They were quick and agile, armed with weapons and gambesons, but they were still ordinary peasants at heart. Yet he could not abandon the patrollers and simply run.
As the prince of a ruined kingdom who wandered gathering followers, Alexei made his decision.
“Sir Viktor, have the men fall back!”
“What will you do?”
Alexei gave a small smile. “We cannot flee and leave them behind, can we?”
“I knew you would say that. I will fight with you.”
“Haha, of course. You are my right arm and my first knight!”
“I will serve Your Highness to the very end!”
With solemn expressions, Alexei and Viktor raised their swords and advanced toward the infected.
At that moment a voice rang out.
“Clear the way!”
Ion came running, and behind him—
—Bark bark bark!
Lotte followed at his heels.